There are many branches of the “chicken-tree,” the more important ones being breeding stock, or fancy poultry; egg farming, broiler farming and roaster growing. Running a public hatchery, and selling day-old chicks, is the latest development, and is indeed so intensive that it links manufacture to farming, for the building site is the only ground required. These branches are recommended to the inexperienced poultryman in the following order:—1st, Egg farming; 2d, roaster growing; 3d, fancy poultry; 4th, broiler production. Egg farming, properly conducted, is profitable in almost any locality. Roaster farming has proved a great success near Boston, but has not been largely introduced into other localities. Fancy poultry is a money-making game for those who are successful in winning prizes at the show, and getting well advertised as breeders. The broiler business, seemingly the most profitable branch, has in practice been a source of loss to many investors. The cause of failure in the broiler business, lies chiefly in the difficulties of artificial incubation, especially in the winter season. Incubation is to the chicken raiser what the hot-bed is to the tomato raiser. If incubation is a failure, the whole business must fail. For the poultryman with a few dozen, or even several hundred fowls, hatching with hens is to be recommended, unless he keep Leghorns or Minorcas; these varieties not being good brooders. Convenient arrangements for setting hens in large numbers will be a more successful investment than incubators. For duck farms or Leghorn egg farms, or any poultry business on a large scale, artificial incubation is a “necessary evil.” The Central Hatchery, only now being established here, although in use in Egypt for centuries, promises to solve this difficulty. The advantage of centralizing the hatching is that it admits of better methods than are available on a small scale, and also allows one man to devote his entire energies to this feature. Such hatcheries may be handled either by private individuals, or, as in the case of the creameries, may be co-operative institutions run for the good of the whole community. A continuous house can be built with small compartments for each flock, and separate runs for summer use, though the colony plan is preferred by some, and has its advantages, among them being the fact that the flocks are more widely separated, so there is less danger of any disease spreading; and if any particular house becomes infected, it can be cleansed without disturbing the whole plant. The colony plan requires considerable less expense in housing and other equipment than the yarded plan. The expense for food is also decreased, because of the greater number of insects and green food that the hens get from the range.